The Department of Trade and Industry has recorded a surge in the number of businesses registering despite the coronavirus disease last year, an official said on Friday.

This as Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez expressed optimism that more businesses will open this year.

"As they said, it's not difficult to be better this 2021 because what really happened in 2020 - the height of our lockdowns, there was almost no economic activity," he said in the "Laging Handa" public briefing.

Based on statistics, he noted that towards the end of last year, many have registered their businesses versus in 2020.

The significant rise could be due to digital economy or e-commerce, he said.

"Our registration in (e-commerce) was more than 40 times - not 40 percent, 40 times. Before, less than 2,000, those who registered as of March were 1,700 and this increased to about 88,000 towards November...so those who registered significantly increased especially in online businesses," he explained.

Lopez said that Filipinos are really entrepreneurial as they look for ways to survive.

"So, there are really more businesses to rise and to register," he added. Celerina Monte/DMS